As some of the world knows, Amanda Knox's appeal is coming up in a few months. This is the forum to ask your questions, give your advice, and basically share your opinions on the coming appeal. Your posts should be confined to what do you think Amanda's chances are of winning on appeal? What advice do you have for a sucessful appeal? What are the limitations to the appeal process in Italy, if any? Suggestions to share on what the Knox defense should put forth to better Amanda's chances to overturn her conviction.
Please take note that this in not the place to hash out all the evidence, or to express personal hatred of either Amanda or her co-defendent. This is a forum to express opinions and ask questions related to the up-coming appeal to overturn Amanda's murder conviction.
Please be civil and stick to topic. Anyone clearly out of line will be blocked from posting. Any hateful dicussion will be deleted. I am aware of the contention between the pro-Knox and anti-Knox factions- and I will state this clearly- this is not the forum for such contention. Hopefully this will be a fruitful and productive discussion; An exchange of ideas and opinions without getting militant or abusive. I would like to see how many of you view Amanda as innocent and do you think her appeal will be sucessful, and why do you think so?
Update September 4, 2010 Note: If you do not see the comment box below- click on the word comment at the end to pull up the comments and comment screen.
Some news lately about one Rocco Girlanda and a book due to be published in October 2010 which he wrote based on his interviews with Amanda in prison. Seems Amanda's family does not know what the content of the book is about, and I am sure more than a few are jealous who make their living from the pen. Rocco however is not a reporter, but rather a member of the Italian parliament, and head of the Italy-USA foundation. He has however interests in several newpapers and has published before as a journalist. Hopefully it is a book that is objective and fair, as the timing is of supreme importance. Amanda is due for a court appearence in October for slander and the following month is her appeal. And I need not point out that the book will probably be read by those sitting across the room from Amanda at these court hearings. At this point no one knows if this is a good thing or a bad one as far as Amanda is concerned. It all comes down to what the true intention is of Rocco Girlanda, and for that we will have to wait till October to find out when the book is published. The reported title of the book is "Take Me With You: Talks With Amanda Knox In Prison". As repoted- the book contains nothing about the trial. It is well known that Amanda is a trusting soul. This October we will know if her trust was well placed.
I personally feel that Mr Girlanda's intention was most likely to show a side of Amanda few know outside her circle of family and friends. A book about Amanda as an individual- her thoughts, her love of Italy, and her hopes for the future. It is reported that the book will also contain some of Amanda's poetry. Hopefully, this book will have a very positive influence on important coming events, and particularly Amanda's appeal.
Amanda's Book Due Out April 30, 2013
11 comments:
If she is truly innocent the appeal should go well. There does not seem to be much evidence against her but in Italy it seems it was enough. If what little evidence holds up during the appeal than I wonder if she will ever get out of jail. Personally, I don't think there was enough evidence to convict her of murder and sentence her to 26 years in prison. Just my opinion of course.
I think they should get it right this time around. With what little evidence was presented at trial no wonder a lot of people are upset with the verdict. I think Amanda Knox is one of those women who some people love to hate, but I do not feel that is fair to Amanda. I think a lot of people take her the wrong way. I think if she was as crazy as some people try to make her out to be....she would not have any friends at all...yet her friends stand by her. They say she is original, spaced out a bit....but also caring and a good friend.
I do not think the appeal will go like the trial...I think the trial is a mistake that needs to be remedied. As I say I think some people just love to hate her but I do not get involved with that.
I wanted to see if someone would bring up the DNA evidence. That seems to be what people dispute...pro and con. I personally did not like that the trial court did not allow for independent evaluation of the DNA evidence...Perhaps the appeal court will grant independent testing.
Thank you for your post Anonymous. Well a lot of people think Amanda is innocent- and still others think she is guilty. I don't think it is so much the country of Italy that took the evidence to heart, but rather the court in Perugia that seemed to think the evidence was enough to convict. Including the jury of course. My personal feeling is that there are some questions about this case that really p** some people off, and hopefully the appeal will open the door and let in some fresh air. There are more than a few things that trouble me about this case. Thanks for posting.
Thank you tonightsfire for commenting. I happen to agree with you that for some reason Amanda Knox is a woman some people love to hate. And I have seen a lot of this hate on other sites/forums and some of it seems a matter of opinion and other times it seems like they just don't have their facts straight. A lot of the hate comes from the very beginning of this case- in November 2007 when Amanda accused the bar owner Patrick under stress. People will just not forget that and they can't seem to understand why a person would railroad and innocent man. On that score I don't think Amanda was trying to falsely accuse anyone. My opinion is she just wanted a long interogation to stop-tell them what you think they want to hear and they will leave you alone so you can sleep. You know people in a position like that will do the strangest things when under a lot of pressure and exhusted. So I do agree some people just love to hate her, but that has nothing to do with if she is a murderer or not. And the coming appeal should, hopefully, stick to the facts of the case, drop the 'Amanda the Terrible' stigma and all the speculation. Oh and yes the DNA I am sure will come up in the discussion as that is one of the high points the defence intends to put forth. Thanks for commenting.
What I find interesting is the recent interview on Good Morning America with retired FBI agent Steve Moore, who now believes Amanda Knox is innocent- after independently researching her case for more than a year. He initially thought she was guilty but then quickly changed his mind once he had analyzed the evidence. When asked how sure he was of Amanda's innocence, he said "When Amanda Knox gets out- if she needs a roommate- I'll send my daughter over." He brought up a lot of interesting points that can't be ignored...or rather shouldn't be ignored such as the DNA. He also talked about the 12 hour interrogation she had to endure with no food and no bathroom breaks. It just seems to me that he genuinely thinks Amanda is innocent and not just doing it for his 15 minutes of fame. I guess time will tell if the evidence (or lack thereof) that he speaks of will help Amanda or not.
I agree with anonymous. From what I have read, I don't think there was enough evidence to convict her of murder.
Thank you for your comment smiling0101. I certainly agree that there was not enough evidence to convict- but convict they did. Hopefully the appeal will overturn this. I feel that public awareness of this case is very important. Please come back and post what's on your mind or ask questions if need be. It is important that people know that facts of this case, and that is the sole purpose of this forum. Thanks again, and stay involved.
I believe that the circumstances which triggered this imbroglio can be best explained following the logic outlined by Nassim Nicholas Taleb in his book, “The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable.” in which the author describes the all too human tendency of mentally arriving at a conclusion using incomplete data and then only accepting evidence affirming that initial judgment, while ignoring all evidence that conflicts with it. Had the Flying Squad detectives possessed the information laid out by Retired FBI agent Moore, it is highly improbable they would have pursued the course that has Amanda and Rafaelle facing destroyed lives while these Italian detectives hunker down frustrated that a well engineered conviction isn’t enough to end this matter.
That this is a recurring problem in their society is evidenced by the law that gives law enforcers the ability to sue Amanda’s parents for slander for repeating their daughter’s description of the ordeal to which they had subjected their daughter in their efforts to solve the case using unsubstantiated hunches. Given the catalogued list of assaults on Amanda’s civil rights, it ought be apparent that reform, not for the benefit of errant foreign college students, but for every Italian citizen who will encounter law enforcement is needed. While threat of imprisonment may silence the citizen, it only encourages lazy law enforcement while real culprits slip though unpunished. The first step toward objective reform is identifying abuses.
The conduct during the all night interrogation is keystone to the whole affair. Once they had broken Amanda, her credibility was shot, leaving them an open field to justify using questionable evidence and witnesses. I suspect that Judge Magnini was more interested in a conviction than he was justice. After all, the political pressure disappears when there is prisoner on whom derision and character assassination can go on unabated. My belief is that he misjudged Amanda as being foreign flotsam, a student of limited means to whom he could do anything he wished. Instead he found the pretty girl was the tip of an iceberg consisting of family, school and college friends with whom she had deep and respected roots. Add to them an ever growing field of media people and the general public who are offended by they way this case has been handled. The longer this couple serve, the greater should be the reaction against those who manufactured this conviction.
I believe that this defamation suit is round one of the appeal and a deemed necessary rear guard action. If they can get away with the twelve “You saids” from the Flying Squad versus one “Amanda said.,” prevailing, they go into round two, one up. On the other hand, if the very convincing case presented by Agent Young, prevails, a message is sent to law enforcement that just because the body was covered with a duvet, it doesn’t mean a woman is the killer and to keep their minds and options open. It’s better to reset the basic assumptions of an investigation than to dig a deeper hole. For the sake of the falsely convicted, the appeals court has more reason to open its scope wide enough to see the inconsistencies, jumps of illogic, evidentiary manipulation, and plain exculpatory evidence to throw this conviction out. Beyond Amanda and Rafaele, at stake in Italy are the civil rights of every citizen whose lives and deeds could be spun destructively by the mistaken attention of these investigators.
Sorry for the delay. I found your comment in the spam folder- I have no idea why.
Thank you for your comment. Amanda's appeal could very well turn this whole thing around. During the trial- and particularly at the beginning of the trial, most of the world considered Amanda and Raf guilty as charged. The media had done it's work and influenced the trial court in a negative way. Over the last year or so, many positive things about Amanda have come to light, and in that time many experts have given their opinions and have seriously called the evidence into question. I for one would be shocked if the appeals court did not overturn the convictions. We will all have to wait and see- and hope justice is served this time around.
Saint_Michael1, thank you for giving my posting the light of day. Had I mastered your system, I would have signed in as "Barry_T" instead of Anonymous. Are you or anyone else going over the sentencing document that I understand will be the basis of the appeal?
Yes the sentencing report will be started very soon and perhaps given it's own separate page with ability to comment at the bottom. All separate pages can be found on the upper right side of the main page.
By all means sign in as Barry_T as I imagine if many people sign in as anonymous, no one will know who is addressing or referring to any particular comment.
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